Nick Saban defines Charlotte game as a must-win for North Carolina, Bill Belichick: 'No doubt'

The first game of the Bill Belichick era at North Carolina was… in one word… a nightmare. And that might be putting it nicely.

Although the Tar Heels marched down the field and immediately took a 7-0 lead, TCU scored 41 unanswered points to take a 41-7 lead over Carolina with 6:56 remaining in the third quarter. The final score settled at 48-14 in favor of the Horned Frogs, marking a rough start to the Belichick era in Chapel Hill.

North Carolina‘s 48-14 loss to TCU was the largest home loss by an ACC team in a season opener against an unranked team since Duke got shutout 38-0 by East Carolina on Sept. 2, 2000. It was not quite the first impression that the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach wanted to make.

College Football Hall of Fame coach Nick Saban joined ESPN‘s Pat McAfee on Friday’s edition of ‘The Pat McAfee Show‘ to discuss Belichick’s season-opening loss and what comes next for him. He took a different stance than most, pleading with people to be patient but also saying that Carolina’s road game at Charlotte this weekend is a ‘must-win.’

Nick Saban claims Charlotte game is ‘must-win’ for North Carolina

“I think the most important thing is that you win with people,” Saban said. “You’ve gotta have a good roster and you’ve got to have an opportunity to develop that roster. I think they got in there kind of late in January, probably being new and got behind the 8-ball a little bit. They maybe didn’t do as well in the portal as they would have liked to in January, so they’ve got work to do in terms of the players they have.”

“The tackling on defense wasn’t very good, obviously the turnovers for two scores wasn’t very good and there are a lot of things they need to work on and improve on. I’m sure Bill will go to work on that, but I do think also that people need to have patience in the fact that you have to have the chance to get good players and have a chance to develop those players as a group. (Charlotte) is a must-win. No doubt.”

Kick-off for Saturday’s game between the Tar Heels and 49ers is scheduled for 7:00 PM ET. The game can be seen on ESPN+.